


The Rainbow Connection

by Starrik



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 07:47:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11436366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starrik/pseuds/Starrik
Summary: Luke and Leia take a moment out from the hectic business of reuniting the galaxy to talk, sister to brother.





	The Rainbow Connection

The hill was quickly becoming slick with mud in the latest sun shower, there was just too little actual grass to keep it all in place. Leia cursed softly to herself as she climbed up the hill, but at least she was wearing practical outdoor-wear rather than the elaborate fashion required of a Senator. Which, somehow she still was, despite her planet having been destroyed and the Senate dissolved at least once since then. No one ever really questioned it.

As she’d guessed would be the case, Luke was sitting alone at the crest of the hill, facing out over the lake with his eyes closed. When she got a little closer, she could tell that he was completely soaked through, his face and hair covered in raindrops.

Without a word, she sat down next to her twin, ignoring the squelch of mud beneath her.

“Is there a meeting important enough that you won’t leave as soon as it starts raining?” she asked wryly.

“Nope,” replied Luke, his eyes not so much as twitching. She knew he’d felt her coming, there was no sneaking up on Luke.

“It’s six years today, you know.” Luke’s ears seemed to prick up just a little at that. “Since we met, on the Death Star.”

“Since Han and I rescued you, you mean.”

“If you could call it a rescue, sure.” He laughed at that, and Leia relaxed slightly. She kept waiting for the war to drag Luke down, like it did everyone, but so much of him still seemed to be the hopeful farm boy who’d stormed the greatest fortress in the world to rescue a princess.

“We did rescue you. It’s just that you rescued us right back. It was only fair.”

“I guess it was at that. And R2 saved us both.”

“I remember,” Luke started, nostalgia sounding strange from the twenty-five year old’s mouth. Maybe the war had aged him more than she’d thought. “I remember when you and Han first started flirting with each other, from that very first moment. I couldn’t tell who I was more jealous of, him or you.”

“You figured it out eventually, though.”

“Yeah, it was you. I was jealous of you. Not that Han was the type to really pick up on that kind of thing. Still isn’t, I don’t think he ever quite got it.”

“I think you’re right there.”

The last drops of the shower were released by the clouds, and splattered their way right onto Luke’s upturned face. As if he knew that it was ending before it had, his eyes fluttered open to stare out at the rainbow that sparkled through the moist air.

“Did you know, I’d never seen one of these before the Empire fell?”

“What, a rainbow?”

“That’s what you call them. There’s never enough water in one place on Tatooine for something like it. And what with Hoth, and Bespin, and the canopy on Dagobath I just never had the chance. They’re just incredible.” Leia snorted at that, and Luke finally looked at her for the first time since she’d arrived. “You disagree?”

“You should have seen the rainbows on Alderaan. When I was little, I used to think they were solid and that if you could catch one, you could walk all the way along it. One of my nannies used to take me out rainbow hunting when I got restless.” Luke was clearly trying to decide whether she was lying or not, and eventually decided just to smile and enjoy the story as it was.

“Strange, isn’t it? You grew up in the softest place I’ve ever heard of, all rolling fields and sparkling lakes, yet you’re the toughest person I’ve ever met. And me…”

“You’re strong too, Luke,” Leia said quickly.

“That’s not what I meant. We’re exactly the same age, and yet it feels as if you’re always going to be half a dozen years older than I am. I’m not cut out for war, Leia.” She suppressed the urge to tell him that no one was cut out for war, because she knew what he meant. The Rebellion hadn’t hardened him the way it had her, and countless others. Luke had never been forced to make decisions about who lived, and which innocent people had to die for the good of all. And however things had happened had they been sent to each other’s adoptive parents instead, Luke would never have become the person that she was.

“What are you going to do, then?”

“Start a school,” he said quietly. “Teach anyone who wants to learn. I can’t just keep fighting, and politics makes my head spin. I’ll leave that to people that will do it best. I just want to start building something that will last, and this is the way to do it.”

“I’ll see about getting funds from the New Republic for you to start a Jedi school, Luke.”

“Thank you,” he replied, smiling at his sister.

Leia stood slowly, trying to wipe some of the mud from her clothing. “You’d better teach me though. I’m not having some upstart kid be better than me with the Force.”

Laughing again, Luke followed her up. “I promise, Leia. You’ll get as much teaching as you have time for. Not that I can see you being the best of pupils.

Her lips quirked into a smile, and the two of them took to walking down the hill together in companionable silence. Between some people, words aren’t always necessary.

Some people just _know_.


End file.
